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Space Invaders: Galaxy Beat Preview

Following on the heels of Space Invaders Pocket, Taito is preparing to release yet another Space Invaders-themed game for the PSP this fall. Space Invaders: Galaxy Beat is an all-new game that will include three play modes, one of which is entirely 3D.

The main play mode in Galaxy Beat is its Future Mode, which drags the franchise kicking and screaming into the 3D realm. It's an on-rails cursor style shoot'em up, cut from the same mold as games like Cobra Command and Sin & Punishment. To get an idea of the viewpoint, imagine if you were looking up at the sky and suddenly saw space ships falling to Earth. Now imagine there's a cursor sitting there and you can blow up those ships by setting the cursor on them and hitting a button. That's Future Mode in a nutshell. As you can see from the screens, the graphics are sharp... and it looks like a great amount of effort has been put into coming up with interesting ships and intricate explosions. Future Mode will contain five different worlds, each with four individual stages.

Rounding out the game's play modes are Classic Mode, which is a spot on port of the classic 1978 Space Invaders arcade game, and Match Up Mode, a wifi multiplayer mode that allows two players to compete against one another on opposite sides of the battlefield.

Space Invaders: Galaxy Beat goes on sale in Japan on September 22, 2005. Once again, this is a Japan-only release, so English-speaking shooter fans will have to import if they want a Space Invaders fix. Considering the popularity of retro titles, though, we figured we'd get the word out on this one just in case Taito manages to snag a U.S. distributor.